Sunday, September 22, 2013

A Compassionate Response to Amazing Grace

As an average white American it is hard to face the idea that by
being white it puts me at an advantage over other citizens. However,
despite what I might like to protest, it is true. While reading Jonathan
Kozol's Amazing Grace the reality of what he was describing about the
citizens in the South Bronx and the lives that they lead every day, hit me
extremely hard. I am not by any means ignorant to the reality that people have
it much worse than I do, but the impact did not go unnoticed. The life that Kozol
described made me think about everything I had and realize the great
opportunities that I have set before me. Basic amenities that I take for
granted every day, other citizens struggle to hold onto. This is where we found
Alice Washington who is suffering from AIDS, all the while trying to support
her teenage son as he goes through high school and prepares for college.

What Kozol described was not some desperate junkie living off the
government, just like stereotypes have Americans believing, but a strong
independent woman doing everything she can to give her child what he needs, all
the while having crippling medical problems. However despite all of what she goes through
she reveals to Kozol what is going on around her and the suffering that others
are facing. In spite of what she faces every day she still had the compassion
to understand that she is not the only one suffering. This compassion is not
something you can find in an average white citizen because it seems as though
we feel that if it is not seen, it doesn’t exist. This concept can be tied into
Peggy McIntosh’s article where she states, “I was taught to see racism in
individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on
my group.” If we as white Americans choose not to see what is right in front of
us, there is no hope of getting our citizens out of the desperation they face
every day.